Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Outlines of a System of Mechanical Philosophy: Being a Research Into Laws of Force
But, whether or not the Opinions here presented are demonstrated to the minds of scientific men, it is admitted that many of the present explanations of philosophy are received as the supposed best possible explanations, rather than as settled truth, on which the mind confidently reposes. The conservatives in science may be successful in pointing out the errors of new theories, but they have other more dificult work, that of the defence of the old theories.
A reexamination of principles supposed to be forever set tled by the authority of a Newton may strike many minds as presumptuous. It will be seen, however, that the Splen did conceptions Of Kepler, made distinct and thoroughly demonstrated by Newton, are not assailed. The glorious truth of the harmony of the movements of the Spheres, by which the astronomer can track out the orbit of the most eccentric wanderer of the heavens, stands forever, the re?ex of the light of creation from the minds of the truly great.
It is the school which now determines Opinions on philo Sophical subjects. Men are taught to believe rather than to re?ect, - to receive Opinions rather than to evolve them by the process of intense thought. A scientific education is a capital, the value of which is impaired by dissent. It would seem as if nothing further could be attained, as if philosophy had soared its highest ?ight; for theories thus pass from mind to mind, from generation to generation, as settled truths, and theories too, somewhat questioned or indistinctly comprehended, even b y those who teach them.
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